


Three, two, one - start

by I_have_hella_nice_abbs



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: (kinda), (mentioned) - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Quirks (My Hero Academia), Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Fox Hybrid Floris | Fundy, Gen, Good Jschlatt (Video Blogging RPF), Multiple Pronouns for Eret (Video Blogging RPF), Piglin Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Ranboo-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Shapeshifter Alexis | Quackity, Sheep Hybrid Jschlatt (Video Blogging RPF), Teacher Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade Hears Voices (Video Blogging RPF), Trans Floris | Fundy, Unreliable Narrator, Winged Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:47:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28612299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_have_hella_nice_abbs/pseuds/I_have_hella_nice_abbs
Summary: Ranboo felt like he was going to feint, the fur on his arms standing on end. Oh sweet Jesus, the teacher was Philza Soot! PHILZA SOOT!! He squealed in his head. The Winged Protector was Number 6 in the UK, known for being the highest Protector hero on the scoreboard. Who knew he'd be teaching here!?"Oh hey Philza." Came a monotone voice from the back. What? Did he know The Winged Protector?"Hey Techno." The Winged Protector greeted back, flashing a smile as he strode to the front to address the class. "Please, everyone sit down."-It's Ranboo's first day at a prestigious hero university-Quirk au for mcyt
Relationships: Alexis | Quackity & Karl Jacobs & Sapnap, Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Eret & Ranboo (Video Blogging RPF), Jschlatt & Wilbur Soot, Ranboo & Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Zak Ahmed & Darryl Noveschosch
Comments: 338
Kudos: 973





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just to let you know, I'm not gonna be using the real names of the cc's (unless it's literally their username, looking at you Karl) bc I'm using the characters they put on, not the actual people

"Shut up."

Ranboo squeaked and whirled around, accidentally knocking into the speaker, who gave him a weird look. What the hell? He wasn't even talking!

The man (maybe? He really shouldn't assume if he was going to be a hero) who'd spoken was shorter than him (not that that was hard), but in a way that let you know it really didn't matter. Stocky with intimidating muscle and scars criss-crossing over open skin (which there wasn't much of, he was wearing a long red winter coat, the type that had fur around the lip of the hood). He had a pig type mutation quirk, his floppy ears were almost ripped apart at points, with only gold piercings keeping them together and one of his tusks was chipped at the tip. Even his glasses, small and modified to be able to sit on his snout did nothing to ramp down his overall intimidation factor, with one lense blacked out to serve as an eye-patch with a huge scar reaching through it.

Well! Maybe he'd been through a bad time! Scars didn't necessarily mean he mugged people in dark alleyways. He was joining the hero course too wasn't he?

Ranboo cleared his throat nevously, casting around for something to say. "So, uh, what are your pronouns?"

The man (?) snorted and looked up from where he'd been studying his hooflike nails.

"You talkin' to me?" He had a disconcerting way of trying to look Ranboo directly in the eyes as he spoke, so Ranboo focused on what was left of his right ear to compensate.

"Uh, yeah?"

"Oh, he/him then, I identify as male too, will you just shUT UP"

Ranboo jumped at the increase of volume, and silently despaired. How had he already caught this man's ire? He didn't even know what he'd done!

"Oh alright, sorry. I'll be out of your, uh, fur."

Ranboo felt like he stalked off, proud and uninterested but it probably looked more like a scuttle, as he had a tendency to hunch his head to avoid meeting people's eyes. Even though it was necessary Ramboo bemoaned it, it always made him look as if he had something to hide.

God that was so rude!? He'd barely said two words to the man and he'd been shouted at, Ranboo felt like he should've stood up for himself more in that incounter.

"Guess I know who to avoid." He muttered, striding past a sign that said *Hero Course students this way -->*.

Oh no.

"For christs sake!" Ranboo almost shouted, throwing his hands in the air. He'd stormed off in completely the wrong direction! He'd been standing with the rude man for a reason, being that it was a door into his first class in the hero course, an introduction to heroics class that every hero student took before focusing on their specialty. Honestly Ranboo was starting to like Rude-Man less and less. Who just let someone storm away when they were waiting for something! Ranboo almost ran a hand through his hair in stress but stopped himself. Mixing the black and white halves of his hair would throw off his whole look. He was already having a bad day, he did not need that.

Ranboo picked up his speed in the opposite direction, long legs striding slow enough to not be called running. Just for plausible deniability though, anyone would be able to tell how desperate he was.

He noticed the spot he was at before and, yep, the door was open and Rude-Man was gone, probably already inside. Fantastic.

Ranboo slowed down to check himself before entering. He wanted to make the best first impression after all.

Hair? Tousled artful, mindful not to mix the shades too much. Fine. 

Fur? A glossy pitch black and snow white achieved through a rigorous conditioner routine. Fine. 

Claws? Buffed to perfection. Fine.

Fangs? Nothing stuck in them. Fine

Suit? Bit overkill, but ultimately? Fine

Feeling moderately better about himself, Ranboo ducked under the door frame to enter the lecture theatre.

It became immediately obvious no-one else was taking it as seriously has he was.

To start, only one other person in the room was wearing a suit, a man (Again shouldn't assume, but perhaps it would be easier until he could ask) with ram horns and mutton chops currently engaged in a passionate arguement with another guy (in a beanie and sweater) about... Baked beans of all things.

A dude in shades and a woman with a sheep like mutation quirk were sitting on a desk near the front, seemingly in deep conversation while Shades braided the woman's thick rainbow wool.

A man in a tracksuit and a guy in a multicoloured hoodie were laughing hysterically, pointing at someone who had managed to set himself on fire. Another man, in goggles, frantically tried to put Fire-Guy out, his light based mutation quirk (?) rippling crazily across his skin as he desperately patted.

The Rude-Man from before stood in the back corner, a peppy woman with dyed bangs trying to interact with him, seeming to take his silence as a challenge as she talked at him.

The two guys nearest to the door (and closest to him) were hugging it out. It appeared to be a reunion or meet up of some kind as the blue haired one was saying "so nice to see you, dude." Over and over again and the one with the red hoodie and glowing eyes just hugged him like there was no tomorrow.

Ranboo moved awkwardly away from Blue-Hair and Glow-Eyes, not wanting to interrupt, and started to walk towards Shades and Rainbow-Wool. He honestly just didn't want to deal with the Fire-Four. Mutton-Chops and Baked-Beanie seemed far too engrossed in their argument for him to interrupt, which was now about... Gun laws in America? What? How? And while Dyed-Bangs looked really nice, he didn't really want to talk to Rude-Man again. The more low-key group appeared to be the best place to go.

Shades and Rainbow-Wool had been joined by two others - both also invested in braiding her wool - a redheaded man with fox ears and a man with a siamise cat mutant type quirk who's fur looked incredibly soft (god, Ranboo needed to get his routine).

It was great that the hero industry was becoming more accepting towards people with animal based quirks. He knew personally that the further you strayed from the original quirkless baseline, the more shit you were gonna get for it. It was cool the class was so diverse

"Hey." Said Shades, and jesus his voice was low. "Come to join the braid train?" 

"Yeah, uh, sounds fun!" He did little jazz hands and Redhead snorted. Ranboo couldn't help the burst of pride that filled him at the sound, he was making friends already!

Shades shifted, opening a space for Ranboo to sit on the table and spoke. "Yo, my name's Eret Cooker, I go by any pronouns and I wanna become an information gathering hero. What about you?"

Before Ranboo could speak, Rainbow-Wool swatted Eret on the leg and said. "Hey! Introduce us too!"

They laughed a deep laugh and waved a hand. "Right, right. The braidee likes to be called Puffy and uses she/her pronouns, wants to be a Capture hero. Fluffy here is Anthony Frost, he/him pronouns and a Support hero wannabe. The furry is Fundy Jansen, he/him and is an Info Gatherer like me."

"I am not a furry!" Fundy objected, ears laying flat in mock offence, soundly ignored by the others who all looked expectantly at Ranboo.

"So, uh, I'm Randy Tanner, prefer to go by Ranboo as it's gonna be my hero name, uh, he/him pronouns, and I also want to be a Capture hero, Puffy."

"Nice to meet you, Ranboo." Anthony nodded.

Puffy swivelled round to face Ranboo excitedly, accidentally dislodging a protesting Fundy from where he'd been concentrated on a tiny braid. "No way! Another Capture hero! Good to hear it Ranboo, we might work together."

"Hope so!" He said weakly, avoiding her eyes and scratching the back of his neck. God what was it with everyone here and eye contact, at least he wouldn't have to be careful around Eret.

"Sit! Sit!" Eret insisted, patting the space beside her. Ranboo took the offer and perched on the desk, starting to absentmindedly twiddling with a piece of Puffy's wool. The texture felt nice bushing against his fur.

He gazed out across the auditorium again. It was smaller than he'd expected with a PowerPoint of "Introduction to Heroics" displayed across a blank wall. The room didn't have the classic high ceilings of the classrooms Ranboo saw during the open day, it didn't even appear different from a highschool classroom at all, apart from being more sleek and modern. The most interesting thing about the classroom was the students in it, so Ranboo returned to his favourite hobby. People watching.

The Fire-Four no longer contained any actual fire fortunately, but was just as loud without it. Tracksuit-Guy seemed to have some sort of shape shifting quirk, and was currently cycling through other members of the four, to great applause. It appeared he had to get naked to use it though, which resulted in a lot of shouting whenever he shifted back.

Ranboo averted his eyes from the spectacle and turned his gaze to Mutton-Chops and Baked-Beanie instead. They were still arguing, though he couldn't hear them clearly anymore. They were close enough together that Baked-Beanie had grabbed a horn of Mutton-Chops, trying to hold him back from presumably goring him. Ranboo wasn't worried much though, the argument had turned a lot more joking with both guys laughing as they play fought.

The hugging pair had stopped hugging, instead quietly conversing by the door. Again Ranboo looked away, not wanting to intrude, staring instead at Rude-Man, who, to Ranboo's astonishment, was actually responding to Dyed-Bangs attempt to engage with him, laughing at points between her chatter and gesturing wildly.

"Of course Wilbur managed to find the one person willing to throw down." 

Ranboo startled slightly, broken out of his reverie, and looked questionable at Fundy, who had spoken.

Anthony beat him to the punch and gestured to the fighting pair. "Is he the one with the god awful lamb chops or the rejected indie singer?"

"Rejected indie singer, I like that, it describes him perfectly. Yes that's Wilbur, the bastard. You know I met Wilbur one time. Once! And he was insufferable throughout it! He recognised me today and you know what he did! He marched up to me and declared I was his new son, and said it was fate. He's a nice guy but so so weird." Fundy became more impassioned as he spoke, his accent thickening with every word, a European one Ranboo wouldn't be able to easily identify.

Ranboo saw Eret smirk out the corner of his eye as they called out. "Hey Wilbur!" 

"Ye-" Wilbur started to shout back, grip loosing on Mutton-Chops horn, but was interrupted by Mutton-Chops starting to laugh. It was long and drawn out like a supervillains, rising and hitching in tempo, completely deranged. A chill went up Ranboo's spine as he listened - it was an creepy laugh. The gaze of other students also turned to Mutton-Chops, curious to see what he was so impassioned about.

Mutton-Chops smacked his thigh, almost shaking, and managed to speak. "You- your name is wilBUR!" He scream-laughed again and bent double. Ranboo swore the class almost sighed in relief, exchanging smiles with eachother, even some giggles. He guessed Mutton-Chops laugh was just like that.

"Yeah! well, well, what's YOUR name huh!?" Wilbur answered, tone defensive even as he was smiling.

Mutton-Chops straightened - still wheezing slightly - fixed his suit and offered a hand. "Jedidiah Schlatt at your service, Wilbur. Call me J-Schlatt." His tone was smooth as he spoke and his posture loose, showing no signs of his sudden fit or resentment of he and Wilbur's argument

Wilbur grinned and shook his hand."Jedidiah. That's rich, what are you? Amish?" He joked.

"I said to call me J-Schlatt, Wilbur." There was an edge to his voice and Wilbur seemed to sense it, backing off slightly.

"Alright, alright." Wilbur said, hands up in a gesture of peace "Nice to meet you J-Schlatt." 

The whole room had stopped to look at them at this point, even the Fire-Four. Eret was grinning, thrilled at causing such an unexpected outcome.

It was this scene of brief unity that the teacher walked in on, and Ranboo froze at the sight.

Ranboo felt like he was going to feint, the fur on his arms standing on end. Oh sweet Jesus, the teacher was Philza Soot! PHILZA SOOT!! He squealed in his head. The Winged Protector was Number 6 in the UK, known for being the highest Protector hero on the scoreboard. Who knew he'd be teaching here!?

"Oh hey Philza." Came a monotone voice from the back. Rude-Man? Did he know The Winged Protector?

"Hey Techno." The Winged Protector greeted back, flashing a smile as he strode to the front to address the class. "Please, everyone sit down."

Almost automatically, Ranboo slid off the table to take a seat, Eret and Antfrost taking his lead. Around the classroom he could see others doing similar things, though to Ranboo's horror, Wilbur stuck his tongue out first.

The Winged Protector didn't seem to notice, only waiting patiently behind the podium with a serene smile on his face, his famous wings relaxed behind him. Once the class had settled down he spoke. "Remember, first rule of heroism, no matter the type, is to always be prepared."

Ranboos heart dropped at the words, literally. The floor had just opened under him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clear up, incase it wasn't obvious
> 
> Guy on fire - Sapnap
> 
> Guy in goggles - George
> 
> Tracksuit-Guy - quackity
> 
> Guy in multicoloured hoodie - Karl
> 
> Blue-Hair - Skeppy
> 
> Glow-Eyes - BadBoyHalo
> 
> Quirks as we know of them so far (remember the "mutation quirks" can have more too them, this is just what we know right now)
> 
> Ranboo- has his Minecraft skin as a mutation quirk, also has an adversion looking people in the eye
> 
> Techno- pig mutation quirk
> 
> Jschlatt - ram-like mutation quirk
> 
> Puffy - sheep-like mutation quirk
> 
> Fundy - fox-like mutation quirk
> 
> Antfrost - siamise cat mutation quirk
> 
> George- light based mutation quirk
> 
> Quackity - some sort of shape shifting quirk
> 
> Sapnap - fire based quirk
> 
> Philza - wings of some kind
> 
> BadBoyHalo - glowing eyes
> 
> Pls comment and kudos, it gives me motivation to finish this! :D


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "RIGHT." The Winged Protector called down, suddenly gripping a megaphone. "YOUR TASK IS TO MAKE IT OUT OF THE PIT. ANY MEANS NECESSARY. YOU HAVE TILL THE END OF CLASS."

To be honest, Ranboo would love to say he'd planned and sorted out what was happening to him in the descent like some cool protagonist in an action movie, but his internal monologue mostly consisted of screaming and 'what the hell' as he plummeted to the undetermined end. Vaguely, he knew he wasn't any making noise outwardly, despite the screams of most of his classmates but other than that, the adrenaline took over and his mind was white noise.

Ranboo slammed into the floor, the ground made of flexible material and giving way under him. Well that was nice of them. Ranboo thought, slightly dazed. They probably needed to put it in for at least the first class, to prevent future law suits.

"RIGHT." The Winged Protector called down, suddenly gripping a megaphone. "YOUR TASK IS TO MAKE IT OUT OF THE PIT. ANY MEANS NECESSARY. YOU HAVE TILL THE END OF CLASS."

The hell?? This was clear discrimination against people without physical quirks. The walls were smooth and had no handholds, how the hell was Ranboo supposed to climb them in 50 minutes?"

He looked up the walls in despair, it was so tall that even if they all stood on top of eachother, they wouldn't reach the top. Ranboo frowned and squinted, was someone else standing at the top with Philza Soot? Another hero perhaps? One who caused the floor to fall away and the chairs to disappear? No. Despite his hero like mask (a white full face one with a smily emoticon) he held himself differently to The Winged Protector and seemed just as shocked as the rest of the students to see them down there. But when had he entered the room, then? It was either he had been there the whole time with a notice-me-not quirk, or had just come in late. Did he have some kind of foresight quirk? How the hell did he know not to enter the room with the rest of them? Ranboo couldn't explain it but the faceless man was giving him the creeps.

Ranboo blinked in surprise, while he was pondering the mystery student, someone had somehow made it up to the top. It was Glow-Eyes, skin a slowly retreating pitch black, Ranboo thought he must have a teleporting quirk, or something similar, because even though he hadn't seen him arrive, there was no other way he could have gotten up there so fast.

Rude-Man - sorry Techno, huffed as he eyed the top,nseemingly disappointed that he wasn't the first up and kicked off his modified footwear, revealing hooves. Taking a running leap at one of the walls, he didn't even hesitate before using it like a springboard and leaping to the other side, repeating the action multiple times like a video game character, before he eventually reached the top where Glow-Eyes pulled him up. The Winged Protector patted him on the arm as he straightened. 

"... How the fuck?" It was Fundy who spoke, looking gobsmacked up at Techno, but his fellow classmates also looked like they shared the sentiment but Wilbur only grinned broadly at the sight and shouted up.

"There's my brother!" And then to Fundy in a lower tone. "That's your uncle Fundy."

"Not your brother." Techno answered calmly, grabbing the megaphone to speak.

"I am in spirit!" He turned to look at the other students and whispered in a conspiring tone. "We're twins."

"We're not." Techno answered again, obviously predicting what Wilbur would say.

Considered Wilbur's track record of claiming family members, Ranboo wasn't inclined to believe him. It was obvious they were friends though, or had least met before, because Techno didn't even look too annoyed at him.

"Is your quirk a physical one?" Tracksuit-guy yelled to Techno, looking consideringly at the walls.

"My secondary one is, I learned how to do wall jumping through hard work though, if you shift into me you wouldn't be able to."

Tracksuit-Guy looked taken aback and spluttered. "That wasn't a quirk? What is your main quirk if you don't mind me asking? I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours." He raised an eyebrow suggestively and took on a flirtatious tone Ranboo felt quite embarrassed to even hear, Techno was oblivious to it, being so high up and just looked thoughtful as he answered the question.

"Oh, ok, uh. It's called Radio and it gives me audio hallucinations that provide me information about people and things I wouldn't usually know about. It's annoying because it usually just spams the letter E and the word Humina. I have no idea where the pig thing came from, I never knew my parents."

Ranboo barely kept himself from shouting same. God that was relatable. Still, he felt really bad for judging Techno now. Obviously the noise must be annoying sometimes and Ranboo didn't blame him for snapping. He carefully kept himself from vearing into pity though, Techno was very capable, it would be insult to feel sorry for him.

Tracksuit-Guy started to talk to cut the tension, looking slightly shocked at Techno's blasé reveal about his parents, and took on a boasting tone. "My quirk's called Imperfect Mimicry, it lets me Mimic someone entirely except for one small detail, I get to choose the detail but it must be visible."

"So no dick sizes?" Fire-Guy asked, with expression of mild interest.

"No dick sizes." He confirmed. "But I can make bigger changes if I try, like I showed you earlier. Oh, and I also have to be naked. My name's Quackity by the way." Quackity clarified for the watching audience.

"Why don't we just go round and say our names and quirks?" Offered Goggle-Guy tentatively, stepping forward. "It'll be easier. I'm George, or NotFound if you want to go by my hero name and my quirk's Blinding Camouflage. I can alter the bioluminescent on my body for rudimentary camouflage or to temporarily blind people looking at me. And me, which is why I wear the goggles." He tapped his goggles with one finger and colours rippled across his skin in demonstration.

"Yea, we could work together to get up if we do that!" Added Blue-Hair perking up. "So! My name is Skep Abdella - just call me Skeppy - and, uh, my quirk is Diamond Body and I can turn my body into diamond with it! I do need to leave the joints if I want to move though. Watch this!" Skeppy drew a hand through his hair and it turned to diamond in its wake, clear and crystaline.

"You could really make a lot of money offa that." Said J-Schlatt quietly, eyes fixated on Skeppys hair.

Skeppy shrugged uncomfortably. "Yea, I guess, but I wanted to become a protector hero more."

And awkward silence permeated the room before Ranboo swallowed and stepped forward, making sure to speak loud enough that the people at the top could hear him. "Hi, I'm Ranboo. My Quirk is called Eye-Catching. Basically, if I look anyone in the eyes they freeze immediately, regardless of the position." He didn't demonstrate his quirk but he did spread his hands in a 'there you go!' kinda way. Ranbo's quirk was an easy one to explain which was good but he did feel awkward about it next to all the other in-depth ones.

Eret laughed and Ranboo winced. Eret, seeing this, back peddled. "Sorry. It's just your quirk sounds really similar to mine. Hi everyone, I'm Eret and my quirk is called Eye-Spy. If I look at anyone without these shades I can read their mind. I have to wear these because of quirk privacy laws. Ranboo, if you had less of a specific quirk, you would've too."

Ranboo swallowed. He knew intellectually, certain people had to have restrictions placed on their quirks because they were too destructive or, in Erets case, too invasion but it was odd to actually meet someone who needed them. He felt even worse when he realised he was actually kinda glad for it, he really didn't need anyone taking a look in his messed up head, especially not a new potential friend.

The other people in the pit took the cue to start chipping in with their own quirks and names, until only three had yet to tell theirs.

"Your quirk is WHAT?!" Skeppy yelled, pointing upwards. "You never told me that! It sounds so dope! What does it do?!"

"Eldritch?" Glow-Eyes or Halo, as Ranboo had recently learnt, answered through the megaphone with a tilt of his head. "It only does a couple of things." He started counting on his fingers. "Beast-summoning, shadow teleporting, tentacle control and super strength. Nothing that could help you in this situation!"

"Really?!" Quackity shouted, flinging his hands up. "Not the teleporting, not the tentacles?!"

"Well, only I can travel through the shadows and my tentacles aren't really that long. Look." Halo flipped his hood down and two large tentacles grew out his neck, skin turning black from where they left. He was telling the truth, from what Ranboo could see, because while they were long, they were nowhere near long enough to reach the bottom.

"Damnit!" Cursed Quackity, smacking a fist into his palm.

Sapnap, who Ranboo previously knew as Fire-Guy (for good reason apparently, his quirk, Arson, could set things on fire but not control it) piped up, shouting to the man in the mask. "Dream? Do you wanna reveal your quirk or not? It's chill if you don't dude!"

Halo passed the megaphone to Dream, who tipped up his mask slightly to talk into it "I don't think so, no. I think it'd be better to... Let you keep guessing." He said cryptically and the aura around him intensified. Something about Dream was absolutely terrifyingly and Ranboo couldn't pinpoint what but it was freaking him out.

Sapnap scoffed, unconcerned. "Alright, drama queen." 

Ranboo had no idea how he was so blasé about it, something about the slow measured way Dream spoke made a chill travel down his spine, though Ranboo guessed he was already friends with the man from how familiar he was. Everyone in the room except him, George and Techno seemed to be instinctually inching away from him. Even J-Schlatt, though he looked disgusted in himself for doing so and quickly stepped forward to make up for it.

"Well this is shit." He proclaimed to the room at large. "Nobody here has quirk suitable for getting outta here. Some heroes you all are." J-Schlatt tossed his horns with a flick of his head and crossed his arms, somehow making the action not look juvenile.

Indignation rose within Ranboo at the words, he was going to be a Capture Hero, not a Brawler or Protector Hero. He didn't have to have a physical quirk! Ranboo tried to see the best in everyone but J-Schlatt was being actively hostile, and he hadn't even shared his quirk yet.

Wilbur seemed to have the same idea as Ranboo. "Well then, what's your quirk if all ours are so shit."

"I'm not telling you!" And then, seeing Wilbur open his mouth for a rebuttal, J-Schlatt interrupted. "And don't you dare use your quirk to get it out of me! If Smiles up there can not tell his quirk, so can I!"

Ranboo started, stunned. Holy cow. That was cruel 

Wilbur, whose quirk, Musical Persuasion would easily be able to get J-Schlatt to confess if Wilbur was able to sing, flinched back like he had been struck, a hurt look across his face.

"Not cool dude." Techno called down.

J-Schlatt softened a little, regret creeping into his features. Ranboo had no sympathy for him though, what he said was horrific. Accusing people with mental quirks of using them for their own gain was so deeply rooted in quirk discrimination it wasn't even allowed to be brought up in court without sufficient evidence under the equality act of 2037. J-Schlatt had no right to say that. Ranboo felt slightly sick actually, and could see Eret give J-Schlatt a dirty look from under his glasses.

Ranboo heard a deep reluctant sigh come from behind him, then the unmistakable noise of bones cracking and reforming, a common sound for people with transformation quirks. Fundy came trotting past past him, moving towards Wilbur.

Fundys quirk, Vulpes, let him transform into a fox for 5 minutes then change back and he was using it to become a therapy fox, not caring about how hard it would be to escape the pit in his current form. Ranboo felt his chest warm.

Wilbur smiled at Fundy, and bent down to stroke a hand down his back. "Thank you." He whispered. Ranboo felt his lips turn up involuntarily. Despite his rant earlier, Fundy really cared for Wilbur, enough to comfort him when he was upset.

"Look, I'm sorry alri-" J-Schlatt started to say but was interrupted by two sharp claps that wrung around the pit. Niki's hands poised as she looked determined to start speaking and say her point, whatever it was.

Ranboo flinched at the noise, Niki's words turning muffled in his ears. 

The sharp double clap sounded so familiar to him, itching something in his head he couldn't remember. Desperately, he tried to grab at the instinct that would make him react like that and the memory attached to it, grasping only tail ends of deep breaths and running motion. Darn. Maybe something to do with gunshots? Or buildings collapsing? Ranboo had no idea what the sound of clapping (snapping?) could be triggering a memory of and eventually the impression was gone, leaving only dissatisfiction. Ranboo sighed, and focused back on the now flourishing conversation.

"-and if Skeppy then used his diamond skin to gouge handholds in it, we might all be able to climb it after it turns back to concrete" Niki was saying, making hacking motions with her hands.

"Yea, but your quirk only does about three meters right? And has a cool down period of 5 minutes? We spent 15 minuets just talking, we don't have enough time to get to the top!" Argued Puffy, a frustrated look on her face and also waving her hands about.

To Ranboo, it sounded like Niki was trying to utilise her quirk Sweet Touch to turn the walls around them into candy, making them easier mould and therefore climb. Also, holy cow it'd been 15 minutes?? What the hell!

"Uh-" someone called down from above and when Ranboo turned to look up, Dream was peering over the edge, holding the megaphone. "I have an idea, if you want to hear it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character quirks ;D
> 
> Ranboo - Eye-Catching
> 
> Eret - Eye-Spy
> 
> Wilbur - Musical Persuasion
> 
> Technoblade - Radio
> 
> Fundy - Vulpes
> 
> Sapnap - Arson
> 
> George - Blinding Camouflage
> 
> BadBoyHalo - Eldritch
> 
> Skeppy - Diamond Body
> 
> Quackity - Imperfect Mimicry
> 
> Niki - Sweet Touch
> 
> Antfrost - Ranboo knows, you don't
> 
> Puffy - Ranboo knows, you don't
> 
> Karl - Ranboo knows, you don't
> 
> Dream - unknown
> 
> Jschlatt - unknown
> 
> Please ask questions if your confused! Unless it's something you're supposed to be confused about I will definitely answer ur question and change it to be less confusing.
> 
> Also! I would love to hear theories about quirks in the comments! And pls kudos this, it give me fuel to continue! :D


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "If Ant imbues his saliva with strength, someone should be able to throw the rope up right! Is that what you're getting at?" Sapnap realized, and the entire room turned its gaze to Ranboo.
> 
> Ranboo laughed, awkward, and tried to find somewhere to look that wasn't someone else's gaze. This was why he didn't like speaking up, too many eyes on him!

Disregarding the frozen forms of the others in the hole, George called back up. "Yeah, sounds good! What is it?" And Ranboo had half the mind to shush him. 

Couldn't he see that Dream was clearly dangerous! He was... Well Ranboo couldn't actually pinpoint what was actually wrong with him, maybe something in the way he moved? But it was obvious, right?

Oblivious to Ranboo's inner monologue, Dream continued. "Well Puffy's quirk is Wool Manipulation, right? Couldn't she just make a rope ladder?"

"Well yes." Puffy answered, hesitant. "But I have nowhere near enough wool to make a ladder long enough reach the top, it'd need to be much bigg- oh!" She clapped her hands in delight, and whirled around, pointing at Karl. "I create the ladder, you make it bigger! Perfect!"

Karl's quirk was Size Change. Of course! Ranboo blushed slightly under his fur and awkwardly folded his arms. It was kinda obvious now Dream had pointed it out, but all Karl had to do was touch the ladder with his purple hand and it'd grow long enough to reach the top.

"But how would we get it to the top?" Karl asked, nervously fiddling around a hoodie string with his turquoise hand, accidentally shrinking it without seeming to notice. "That's still an issue."

Ranboo felt kind of left behind in this discussion but this was something he could step in with. "Anthony, uh, wouldn't you be able to help?" He queried, trying his best to sound intelligent like Dream, praying he didn't accidentally misconceive Anthony's quirk.

Anthony blinked and one ear flicked before understanding bloomed on his face and he nodded his head. "Yeah, I think I can, wait a moment." He shut his mouth with a clack and seemed to concentrate, cheeks puffing out.

"Um!? Explanation guys!" Skeppy demanded, looking between Ranboo and Anthony. Fundy yipped in agreement, still in fox form and now in Wilbur's arms.

"If Ant imbues his saliva with strength, someone should be able to throw the rope up right! Is that what you're getting at?" Sapnap realized, and the entire room turned its gaze to Ranboo.

Ranboo laughed, awkward, and tried to find somewhere to look that wasn't someone else's gaze. This was why he didn't like speaking up, too many eyes on him!

"Yes? I mean Honeyed Tongue should be able to do that if I'm right?" He turned to Anthony desperately, looking at his flicking ear in order to avoid eye-contact, trying to get the attention of the room to shift. Luckily it did, and Anthony nodded determinedly and held up two fingers.

"Two minutes?" Asked Puffy, mimicking the gesture. Anthony nodded again and the entire room relaxed, including Ranboo. Two minutes till he was out of here, thank god.

Fundy yipped again, and struggled to get out of Wilbur's arm. Wilbur noticed this and relented placing Fundy on the floor, where he stumbled a bit on the flexible trampoline like martial, then sat. Noticing eyes on him, he huffed, and shook his paw in a 'go on' gesture.

"How long have you got left of that?" Inquired Eret, as they also sat down, prompting a wave of sitting, as Ranboo found the floor was kind of comfy. the only person left standing was J-Schlatt who scoffed and leant against the wall. Ranboo didn't like J-Schlatt but couldn't understand how he had the confidence to be the one to stand out.

Fundy paused, then deliberately yipped three times.

"Three minutes?" Eret confirmed, and at Fundys nod, nodded back. "Right, may as well get to know everyone in that time, Puffy? Why don't you start making the ladder. Anyway, like I said, I'm Eret, my quirk is called Eye-Spy, I'm bi, go by any pronouns, want to be an Information Gathering hero and am a Capricorn."

Slowly, tentatively, everyone started to get more familiar. Ranboo learnt that Quackity wasn't Alejandro's real name, but liked to be called it because ducks were his favourite animal; that Wilbur had an adopted younger brother he was incredibly proud of called Tommy, who wanted to become a hero despite being quirkless, who actually despised the word 'despite' and claimed he was doing it because he was quirkless; that Sapnap, George and Dream were actually friends way before even joining the school, and so were Skeppy and Halo, albeit over the internet. By then Anthony's spit was done and in little bottles, so when Skeppy admitted he could easily live off the diamonds he created but wanted to be a hero because Halo had inspired him to be one, Anthony chipped in, saying his family was insanely rich but he hadn't paid his way into the university because he wanted it to be legit. 

It was at this last point that J-Schlatt snapped. He hadn't said anything throughout the sharing session, just paced and looked angsty when they didn't immediately start after Puffy finished the ladder.

"So what pretty boy is rich and wanted to 'earn his place' he's not doin' any earnin' now! Why the fuck aren't we up there yet!" He yelled, and Ranboo saw his tail, previously hidden in the folds of his suit, stand up in anger.

"Bro, fucking calm down, we still have like 25 minutes left and Fundy only has one minute left!" Quackity yelled back.

"He's a fucking fox, just pick him up!"

"He w-wouldn't have to be a fox if it wasn't for you!" Added Niki, German accent catching on the w.

Ranboo, who had mainly just been sitting in silence after saying he wanted to be a Capture Hero and was adopted (he didn't exactly remember anything to say, and he didn't want to spill his entire tragic backstory on the first day) kinda understood J-Schlatt on this one. Not that he didn't love learning about his classmates! He was just a bit angsty. What if there was a hidden clause? What if Philza Soot was lying and they had to do it sooner? Though really there wasn't any point in rushing it, as it could be dangerous if Fundy turned back mid-way.

"Alright alright!" Came a voice from where Fundy the fox had been. "Chill the fuck out, I'm here, we can start this." Fundy the human stood up. Karl whooped and clapped then noticing no-one else joined in, stopped, coughed and held out his hand for the wool ladder. 

Puffy didn't give it to him "let's measure it out first, Ant give me the gross power up potion."

"It's not a potion!" He complained, handing one of the tiny bottles to her. "And it's not gross. Its just a very strong, temporary testosterone booster!"

"Still spit, still gross." She proclaimed, but necked it anyway.

Ranboo felt the following events were anti-climatic. There wasn't any dramatic transformation, she didn't get huge muscles, she just took the ladder and threw and it flew through the air like it was on rockets.

Halo managed to grab it with a tentacle. "Got it!" He cheered and struck a little poise, fist in the air, it was adorable. He seemed to realise what he did and faltered, looking to Techno, who gave him a thumbs up, Halo grinned and dangled the ladder over the side of the pit, wool only reaching halfway.

"Do you know how much to grow it by?" Inquired George, looking to Karl.

"Yeah, I think so? It's not exactly an exact science." He answered distracted. "HEY, throw it down!" He called to Halo, giving him a thumbs up.

Watching Karl extend the Ladder was boring, apparently it was hard to expand something length wise and not bredth wise? And hard to make repeating patterns? Ranboo didn't know and didn't really want to. Instead he walked over to J-Schlatt (for some reason he thought he was supposed to dislike him? Ranboo couldn't remember why but it was a niggling itch, might as well get to know him face to face, that always stuck in his brain more).

Ranboo focused his eyes on one of J-Schlatts horns and stuck out a hand. "Nice to meet you!"

Slick as quicksilver J-Schlatt wiped all traces of hostility off his face and shook Ranboo's hand. "Nice to meet you, uh, Ranboob, was it?"

"Ranboo." Ranboo corrected, feeling his eye twitch and he let go of his hand

"Right, Right." J-Schlatt said dismissively. "Anyway, how would you like to buy a-"  
He was cut off, a loud cheer going round the main group, Karl had got it to the right proportions. He stared and then laughed his creepy laugh, seemingly out of delight. "Let's save that for later, we need to get out of this fucking thing first"

It was Karl who took the shot this time, because despite the testosterone being temporary, apparently it wasn't great to have it twice in a row so Puffy got benched.

Again the ladder was thrown up and again Halo grabbed it with a tentacle, this time employing Dream and Techno to sit on it to keep it secure as he tied it to the podium. Halo poked his head over the brim and gave them a thumbs up, and again, a cheer went up around the classroom as they started to form a line to climb the ladder, Ranboo was near the back with only Eret behind him as J-Schlatt had barged in front of him.

As soon as Eret stepped onto the ladder the floor changed, shifting to be swapped with the original floor of the classroom, and when Ranboo looked up The Winged Protector was holding a switch in hand. He shrugged internally, perhaps he wanted to be done as much as them, there wasn't much that could go wrong now.

*Swoosh* 

Ranboo didn't even know where it came from at first, only that he was near the top when it happened, and he felt a whip of air by his ankles.

It was a blade that came out just below him through a seam in the concrete. Directly above Eret.

It severed the ladder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character quirks ;D
> 
> Ranboo - Eye-Catching
> 
> Eret - Eye-Spy
> 
> Wilbur - Musical Persuasion
> 
> Technoblade - Radio
> 
> Fundy - Vulpes
> 
> Sapnap - Arson
> 
> George - Blinding Camouflage
> 
> BadBoyHalo - Eldritch
> 
> Skeppy - Diamond Body
> 
> Quackity - Imperfect Mimicry
> 
> Niki - Sweet Touch
> 
> Antfrost - Honeyed Tongue
> 
> Puffy - Wool Manipulation
> 
> Karl - Size Change
> 
> Dream - unknown
> 
> Jschlatt - unknown
> 
> Please ask questions if your confused! Unless it's something you're supposed to be confused about I will definitely answer ur question and change it to be less confusing.
> 
> Also! I would love to hear theories about quirks in the comments! And pls kudos this, it give me fuel to continue! :D


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "-and so, I'm assigning you groups. The groups will be randomly assigned, because you don't always get to pick who you work with, but if people in the group knew eachother before coming to this school, you've got to let me know ok, this is an exercise in teamwork. There's going to be four groups of three and one groups of four."
> 
> "Er, why not four groups of four?"
> 
> "Because I feel like it."

"NO!" Ripped out of Ranboo, not again! 

He desperately whipped around, getting tangled and almost falling off in the process, seeking out Erets eyes. If he could just get a glance! Ranboo stared at Erets face as she fell in what felt like slow motion, and dread mounted in him as he only reached black lenses. His fucking shades! No! He could feel the reaching mental tendrils of his quirk get abruptly cut off and frustrated tears leaked from his eyes, come on! This couldn't happen again! He pushed against his mental barriers, trying to force the tendrils through the plastic. It wasn't working, and Eret was halfway down by now. It wasn't working. It wasn't working! Not again. Not again. Not again. Not again. Not again.

There! Erets glasses shifted slightly in the fall, revealing the whites of his eyes. No, his white eyes, and Ranboo pounced on the opportunity. Latching on with his quirk he grabbed the kinetic energy of Erets body, freezing it. Eret stopped midair, and his clothes hung off his prone body, shades teetering on his neck and then toppling to the ground. He felt the tears in his eyes like acid and willed himself not to blink, red and green eyes twitching with the effort.

'Sorry' came Erets mental voice in his mind. Sorry? What were they sorry for? Ranboo was just glad she was alive, he couldn't let this happen again. Not again. Wait. His thoughts hit a wall. Again?

"Someone fucking get them!" Someone shouted above him, J-Schlatt. "His quirk is fucking eye-contact activated, why are you all just standing around! Ranboo can't put off blinking forever!"

Involuntarily, Ranboo smiled, taking care not to crease his eyes as they stared into Erets. J-Schlatt got his name right that time.

"Right!" Quackitys voice came from above him, warping oddly "Someone, grab me, hold me steady. " He demanded, and it wasn't his voice at all now but Halo's. A Tentacle twice the size and width of Halos but the same inky black colour came down the side of the pit, just long enough to grab Erets outstretched wrist. "You can let go Ranboo, I need to tug him up."

A part of Ranboo rebelled at the words, couldn't Quackity see he was holding him! But logic won out and he blinked quickly, slowly letting Erets body get used to the Kinetic energy again, until he was hung solely on Quackitys tentacle and hiked up.

Ranboo breathed deeply. Thank god that was over. Nudging J-Schlatts foot with his hand to get him moving, he focused on untangling himself from the wool without falling, as his leg had somehow gotten completely wrapped in it.

When he reached the top, J-Schlatt hoisted him off the ladder, clapping him on the back. Ranboo looked to thank him but he was already looking away and striding towards The Winged Protector. 

Ranboo turned to Eret instead, who had his eyes scrunched close and was sitting on the ground. Ranboo patted her hand to let him know he was there, the fur hopefully letting them know it was his, as he didn't have Anthony's finger pads or nearly as corse fur as Technos. Eret grabbed it and smiled in his approximate direction. "Thank you" she said, and smiled.

He heard a SLAP in the background and elected to ignore it, he couldn't muster up the energy.

"No problem." He answered with a sigh.

"I could get used to this form!" Quackity as Halo exclaimed as he paraded around admiring himself, distinguishable from the original Halo only by the fact he had one big tentacle rather than two smaller ones and had on Quackitys clothes over Halo's hoodie. "It's so muscled! I don't even have to change anything. You wouldn't be able to tell from looking at it though."

"Can I touch your tentacle?" Karl asked reaching out, then flinched back and went pink as he realised what he said.

"Oh you can touch my tentacle any time baby." answered Quackity, laughing, with a eye waggle that looked out of place on Halo's face.

"NO! Stop you muffinheads! Get out my body before you start with your gross flirting!" Halo cried in distress. Quackity laughed even harder, but obliged.

"I hate wearing clothes when I shift anyway." Quackity complained. Then shouted as Halo bonked him on the head.

Philza Soot cleared his throat.

A silence fell over the group immediately as all eyes went to him other than Eret who still had his eyes shut and Dream who tilted his head to show he was listening. Ranboo shuddered, jeez he was creepy.

"First things first." He said, and with a flurish brought out a pair of shades, striding over to press them into Erets hand. "Here you go mate, sorry about that. No hard feelings though, right?"

"Uh, no." Eret confirmed as he put the shades on.

"Good! See Jedidiah, he's fine." The Winged Protector said and clapped his hands. "Now, can anyone remember the first rule of heroism?"

"Always be prepared?" Skeppy offered.

"Nope! I lied! It's always be ready to work as a team. And I think you all worked through that wonderfully. Now of course, there were a couple of hiccups." At this he looked at J-Schlatt knowingly. "But everybody managed to redeem themselves by the end"

Philza Soot flipped a switch under the podium and the pit started to rise, much slower than it'd descended. "Right, can everyone get a seat, we can go over was good with how you acted and what we can work on. Don't worry, I'm not going to pull the switch again."

And so The Winged Protector spent the rest of the 20-ish minutes talking about how well the class did and how to be better next time. He was an amazing teacher, managing to find good in something everyone had done, from Fundys desision to de-stress the situation, to Dream thinking of the plan, and even J-Schlatt managing to chivie everyone into action where it really counted and how protective he was of his teammates, though Phil stressed that most of the actions he'd taken wouldn't be accepted in a work situation.

Ranboo even got praised for the quick response with his quirk, which he felt very proud of, usually he just got shouted at for "being creepy" which was a pain. He yawned and blinked rapidly. He always felt exhausted after using his quirk, something about his body internalising the excess kinetic energy? Or releasing it? He couldn't remember which right now. Surely if he put his head on the desk for a little while wouldn't hurt.

"-and so, I'm assigning you groups. The groups will be randomly assigned, because you don't always get to pick who you work with, but if people in the group knew each other before coming to this school, you've got to let me know ok, this is an exercise in teamwork. There's going to be four groups of three and one groups of four."

"Er, why not four groups of four?"

"Because I feel like it."

Ranboo sat up bleary and looked around. Had he blanked out? Everybody was nodding along. What? The Winged Protector had one of those random name generators up on the board with all the students names, one of the ones you could find on the internet.

"Ah! Mr Tanner, nice of you to join us! I thought it better to let you sleep because of your quirk, was that alright mate?"

Ranboo paused taken aback, nobody had ever given him allowances for his quirk before, he was always expected to stay awake. "Yes? What's this about a group project though?"

Philza Soot cracked his back, yawning, and stretched his wings, the leathery membrane vaguely see through in the light of the classroom, reaching from wall to wall and Ranboo just noticed he had an odd red flush down the right side of his face, maybe a rash?. "Oh, it's just groups for a future event, I haven't actually planned anything yet."

"Oh ok, good."

"Anyway, if that's sorted" The Winged Protector spun the random name generator, clicking again and again until he got three names. "Ok! First group issss, Karl, Alejandro and Sapnap!"

"Nice!" Exclaimed Sapnap. "Excited to work with you dudes!"

"Same here!" Quackity cheered then lent back to give Karl a fistbump, Karl merely smiled and obliged.

"Second group... Dream, George and Anthony, sorry George I'll need to swap you out. Dream, Niki and Anthony!"

Dream just nodded, mask as blank as ever and Niki lent over to give Anthony a high five. 

"Third group, Wilbur, Skep and Jedidiah!"

Wilbur glared at J-Schlatt slightly, but looked thoughtful. Skeppy just looked kinda nervous to be stuck between them.

"Fourth group! Eret, Ranboo and Techno!"

Oh Jesus. Ranboo thought, this was going to be fun. He gave a thumbs up to Eret, who flashed a grin back then twisted around to give Techno a smile.

"Fifth group. Halo, Charlotte, Fundy and George!"

Charlotte? Oh Puffy. Fundy let out a little yip of excitement at the news then immediately looked embarrassed, Puffy patted him on the head, looking fond.

"Right! That's today then! Thanks for coming to the lesson, choosing the course, yada yada, ect. Bye for now!"

With an extremely dramatic twirl, The Winged Protector kicked something under the podium, opening a skylight in the ceiling. He spread his wings and flapped, the draft ruffling Ranboo's hair and shot up, out the room.

Quiet reigned through the room in Philza Soot's absence, and Ranboo didn't know if he should leave or wait for someone to move first.

"The hell? That was so dramatic." George announced into the oppressive silence. And Dream laughed and laughed and laughed, a wheezing sound that sounded out of place coming from him, and Ranboo got more and more and more wound up, he had to know he was doing that. Right?

"It was! Right?!" He wheezed, regaining his breath and punching George in the arm, making him yelp in complaint. "Well. I'm gonna go, I have... Things to do, bye everyone!" Dream jumped over his desk and walked out, seemingly ignorant of the mistrustful glances he was getting.

Soon everyone else started to file out and Ranboo moved to stand before someone interrupted him. "Uh, do you mind if I talk to you?" He looked up, it was Eret.

"Oh sure dude." He sat back down. "What about?"

Eret took a deep breath and seemed to gather themself. "Did you know you have mental blocks in place? If not I know an excellent private investigator who can find out who put them there, you won't even have to pay for it, I promise my guy."

Ranboo froze. Right. Eret managed to get a look at his mind, dysfunctional as it was. He forgot about that in the excitement of saving him "Uh yes actually, I've got some pretty heavy trauma apparently, and my mind didn't know what to do with it. Bad experiences run through my mind like a sieve unfortunately. My brain just doesn't retain them anymore."

Eret looked incredibly awkward. "Right. And you're getting help for it?" 

"Yeah dude, I have a therapist, she's pretty baller. Don't worry."

Eret sighed in relief, his glasses slipping slightly and he pushed them up. "That good. That's good. So, see you later I guess?" 

"Yeah, see you later."

Erets fingers twitched in aborted wave gesture before she thought better of it and just nodded, striding off.

Ranboo slumped over his desk like a puppet with its strings cut. Well. That went well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please ask questions if your confused! Unless it's something you're supposed to be confused about I will definitely answer ur question and change it to be less confusing.
> 
> Also! I would love to hear theories about quirks in the comments! And pls kudos this, it give me fuel to continue! :D


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He knocked with his foot, hunched over slightly so whoever answered would be able to see all of him without his head being cut off and Techno opened the door. His long winter coat was off, revealing a blue short sleeved t-shirt underneath it, his arms just as scarred as his face and neck.
> 
> "What do ya want?" He asked, suspiciously.

Honestly, Ranboo thought, you'd think a university as well known as this one would let him see the accomodations before he had his first lesson. Of course now he knew it was because of that stupid teamwork exercise, couldn't have too many people knowing eachother before they could demonstrate how they could work together in the pit. It was annoying, as now he needed to unpack everything when he was already tired and not come back to it done.

The amount of space was nice though. Because of how fancy the school was the hero course students had their own block of flats, as did the costume designing, marketing, business and so on and in each block everyone had individual apartments.

Basically Ranboo had his own kitchen and bathroom on the third floor, which was all he wanted. Yawning again he opened the drawer to put in the spatula, taking care not to be rough with it, spatulas were sentient after all. He reached over to open another box, probably more clothes, and almost opened it before noticing the number on it was different to all the others. A 9 instead of an 8. Welp, someone had mixed up the luggage.

He sighed wearily, already kissing his evening asleep goodbye. Now he would have to knock next door. He loved interacting with people but really, he'd had his fill today, he just wanted to relax.

His floor had two other flats, 9 and 10 and he didn't know who was in them yet, for all he knew it could be Dream. He guessed it was slightly less awkward that he'd already met all of them, he didn't have to introduce himself again after all. He arched his spine backwards, cracking his joints and stretched his fingers, making his claws pop. Right, best be going then.

He picked up the box and and almost dropped it because of the weight, with it clanking ominously, right, not clothes then, he gathered, better not drop it. Walking over to the door he pressed down the handle with his elbow and ducked under the frame to get out, crossing the hall to the door with the 9 painted on it.

He knocked with his foot, hunched over slightly so whoever answered would be able to see all of him without his head being cut off and Techno opened the door. His long winter coat was off, revealing a blue short sleeved t-shirt, underneath it his arms just as scarred as his face and neck.

"What do ya want?" He asked, slightly suspicious, and crossed his arms, the branching scars (maybe electrical?) stretching as he did.

Ranboo held the box of stuff out in front of him as a peace offering, his arms quivering slightly. "This accidentally got delivered to me." He explaned, focussing his eyes again on his piercings, watching as they caught the light while Techno looked down at the box.

"Huh, what dya know. Ya wanna come in? If Philzas gonna make us work together, we might as well get to know each other."

There he was again, referring to The Winged Protector really familiarly, Ranboo would have to ask how they knew each other.

"You know what? Why not. It's better than unpacking."

Techno laughed, a short sound, and said, "that's the spirit. Procrastination pog!"

"Pog?" Ranboo questioned, ducking under the frame to walk into his apartment, which was just a mirror image of his with more things unpacked.

"It's something my chat says a lot. It's late 10s early 20s slang."

"Oh cool. What does it mean?"

Techno took a brief time to look thoughtful, snout scrunching slightly. "Ya know, I don't actually know."

Ranboo laughed, surprising himself. Techno gestured for him to take a seat on the sofa and he did, tucking his knees into his body. He put the box of (???) down on the table with a thump and massaged his wrists

"So. Who's number 10?" Asked Techno, settling down with a groan, stretching out his legs and rubbing his thighs

"Oh, I don't know. I've only just talked to you." Ranboo answered and watched astounded as Techno picked up the box with one hand, seemingly oblivious to how much it weighed.

"Hm. Yeah, you're right, this is probably the weapons." Techno absent-mindedly answered what was probably his chat.

"Weapons?" Ranboo prompted feeling slightly alarmed. Techno blinked as if he didn't realised he'd spoken aloud.

"Ya, I'm lisenced to use them and I'm gonna be a Brawler hero, so I'm legally allowed to bring weapons. Sorry for talking to them infront of you by the way, and shouting before."

He'd shouted at Ranboo? "I've already forgotten about it." Ranboo said with a smile.

Techno slumped slightly, his posture loosing as if he'd gotten something off his chest. "Good, so what were we talking about?"

"Who's behind door number 10." Ranboo reminded

"Right, right. Wait number 10? Why ten an not seven? Wait.... Oh for hells sake Phil! Ranboo I know who's in ten."

"Who?"

"Eret! Phil was picking the housing plan!"

"How'd you find that out?" Ranboo asked, bemused but mostly interested in his thought process.

"We're on the third floor right?"

"... Yes?"

"So shouldn't it be seven, eight, nine not eight, nine, ten?"

Ranboo had to think a little, head cocked in thought and clicked his fingers when he got it "Oh! So there's four on the first floor and three on the rest, like the groups!"

"Yup!" Techno said, looking happy that Ranboo had understood, not that you would've have been able to tell from his voice.

The two lapsed into comfortable silence as Techno sorted through his weapons, which were, as a list; an unstrung bow with spare string and arrows; a crossbow that Ranboo would struggle to even lift; a heavy looking axe made from a material Ranboo couldn't name; several small knives that looked like they were for throwing; a sabre made of a thin light blue material; a broad sword and oddly enough a fishing rod.

As Techno handed off the fishing rod for Ranboo to look at (seeming to sense his confusion) Ranboo remembered he wanted to ask him something.

"So, uh, how d'you know The Winged Protector?"

Techno froze where he sat, arms stretched mid pass and his ears twitched slightly. "Wait a minute." he said calmly and abruptly hunched over, pressing his hands to his ears and mouthing something under his breath rapidly.

Ranboo immediately turned away, he didn't think Techno would want him to see him like that, but before he did he saw Techno's lips form the phrase 'shut up shut up shut up' over and over again.

Ranboo kinda wanted to ask if he was alright, but it didn't look like he was having a panic attack and adding another voice into what was probably very noisy crowd already didn't sound like such a good idea. He knew you weren't supposed to touch people in episodes, whatever they were (he certainly didn't like it) so all he could do was wait it out and not make it too awkward when it ended.

Technos fingers slowly peeling back from his ears was the first sign of recovery, the second being his frantic muttering slowing. Eventually he straightened and fiddled with a piercing, looking sheepish and no longer trying to look Ranboo so directly in the eyes.

"Sorry about that, I, uh, don't like to be reminded of how me and Phil met, it, uh, wasn't a good time for me as the chat likes to remind me. But basically he saved me and we kept in touch, even tried to formally adopt me at one point, though I was already too old for it."

"It's fine!" Ranboo assured him. "It's nothing to be ashamed of! How old are you then?" It was best if he didn't make a big deal of it, again Techno really didn't seem like the type of person to appreciate sympathy, Ranboo knew he didn't.

"21, I know it's a bit late to start university but..."

"It's fine!" Ranboo assured him again. "You don't have to prove anything to me, you're probably the strongest here!"

"Oh well, thats debatable." Techno said modestly, relaxing slightly now he knew Ranboo wasn't going to attack him for weakness or something. "There's definitely at least one person I've got in mind that might be stronger than me. How old are you by the way? Now you know I'm ancient"

"Most likely 19." Ranboo answered cheerfully, an idea coming to mind about how to make Techno feel more comfortable with him.

"Most likely?" Techno asked with a raised eyebrow (eyebrow? Eye-ridge? How did he do that, pigs didn't even have eyebrows.)

"Oh well, I have my own tragic backstory of course." Ranboo said with a conspiring grin. If he gave him something to relate to, to show they weren't so different, perhaps Techno could feel less uncomfortable about being vunrable in front of other people (or at least Ranboo).

"Well of course." Techno allowed, words aloof, leaning forward, his sudden change in posture betraying his facade of disinterest.

"I'm a John Doe. Nobody knows who I was, not even me! I have amnesia. They only guessed 19 because I was so tall."

Techno blinked, whatever he had expected it was clearly not that. "Really? Wow. How much do you remember?"

"Not much, waking up at a hospital, getting adopted." Ranboo admitted truthfully. "But do you know what the best part of having memory loss is?"

"What?" Techno looked genuinely curious about the answer but also weary, as if setting himself up for a bad joke (he already knew Ranboo so well).

"Not remembering whatever heavy duty trauma I went through! Ayyyy!" Ranboo cheered.

"Ayyy!" Techno joined in. "Trauma bonding pog!"

"Trauma bonding pog!" He echoed.

Despite the joking, Ranboo really felt like his plan had worked and he and Techno had really bonded. He looked way more relaxed than Ranboo had seen him in class, less tense and composed of himself, like he wasn't expecting an attack from behind.

Actually Ranboo himself felt less tense now, like he had less pressure to be the most sociable person in the room or having to constantly talk to make up for the lack eye-contact. He felt warm all over, like he had lay with his black side to sun. He had heard about this feeling before, in movies and books, people with this amount of comfort in eachothers company.

Who knew Techno would've been his first friend?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please ask questions if your confused! Unless it's something you're supposed to be confused about I will definitely answer ur question and change it to be less confusing.
> 
> Also! I would love to hear theories about quirks and plot points in the comments! And pls kudos this, it give me fuel to continue! :D


	6. Chapter 6

Ranboo had the best sleep he'd ever had in his life that night.

It wasn't that the bed was more comfortable, or softer it was just that... Well... He didn't have as many nightmares. As was the conduct of his amnesia, he couldn't ever remember his bad dreams but he felt the effects of them and was able to work it out through context clue (something he had to do a lot) like tangled comforters and shaking limbs. But when he woke up that day he was exactly how he'd fallen asleep, curled up in a little ball so his feet didn't hang off the edge.

Ranboo smiled slightly as he woke up to the sound of his alarm. Maybe it was because he had a friend he felt so much better. Or, he thought wryly, it was because he went to sleep so late. He and Techno had talked for hours after all.

He snuggled deeper into his covers, unwilling to get up now he felt so comfortable, then groaned as he realised it was his shower day.

Ranboos shower day was very self explanatory, it was the day he showered. With Ranboo's mutation quirk he didn't sweat from anywhere other than his soles of his feet, one of the couple of places without fur, because he used panting breathes instead to get cooler. He didn't really need to have a full shower every day like most people, only really requiring them when he got especially dirty, but he liked to shower every three days or so anyway as it kept his coat glossy and it was easier to wash his hair in the shower rather than over a sink. Still it was a pain to dry off, which is why he'd woken so early today.

Grumbling, he stretched, arching his back like a cat and got up, stumbling slightly. He made his way to the shower, wow a lot bigger than he was used to, and set out his products before turning on the spray. Taking a deep breath he stepped under the water, instantly feeling two time heavier and waterlogged. Reaching for the shampoo he dumped a bit on his hands and got to work on his hair, better to do the easy bit first, and then rinsed it off and grabbed the curly hair conditioner, applying it to his hair and brushing through it, being mindful not to accidentally duck his head back under the spray and wash it off. 

Now came the harder part, Ranboo turned of the water and picked up Fur Mutation Shampoo for Soft Type Fur™ squeezing a generous amount on his hands and set to work on his legs, starting from the feet and making his way up to the thighs. Sometime Ranboo wondered what showering was like for people who didn't have fur, it must be so much easier to just wipe the dirt off instead of having to scrub. He moved to his torso, getting more shampoo and grabbed a scrubbing stick to move the foam to his back. But, he thought, bare skin as a concept was also pretty weird, he couldn't imagine what animals thought when they looked at humans. He absent-mindedly moved to his shoulders and arms and then focused for his face, where he had to be extra careful not to mix the conditioner and fur shampoo. Finished, Ranboo checked over his body, making sure he hadn't missed a spot, then nodded to himself and turned the water back on, rinsing off the conditioner and shampoo at the same time and grabbed the brush to make sure his hair wasn't too tangled. Then he turned the shower off again

Right. Ranboo thought. Now the hardest part. He grabbed the fancy fur conditioner he used and started applying it in the same order as the shampoo while taking care to follow the grain of his fur, moving much slower up his body. His calves burned by the time he got up to his thighs and he let out a breath in relief when he moved onto his torso, squirting conditioner onto a long handled brush to reach his back. It was costume fitting day today, Ranboo remembered with a start, which was why he had to look his best. He sighed, now he would have to take extra care with the hair dryer. Reaching his face and neck he switched out the conditioner to his most expensive one, taking care to separate the colours that had gotten mixed up in his vigorous shampooing.

Now he just needed to wait. Ranboo entertained himself with thinking of some of his classmates likely costumes. He could see Techno going extremely practical, a jumpsuit maybe, with loops and sheaves to hold his weapons. Maybe Eret would go down that route as well, as an information gathering hero he needed to blend in so maybe flexible pants and a reinforced top? What he got stuck on were the two who needed their skin to show for their quirk to be used effectively, George and his camouflage quirk and Quackity and his mimic one, he knew there was technology available for invisible heros, though he couldn't explain how it worked but camouflage? And would Quackity have to be able easily rip off clothes somehow? Something thin maybe? But wouldn't that be dangerous for him? Ranboo would see later he guessed and turned his focus back onto his fur.

He turned the shower on and grabbed a fine tooth comb, brushing out the conditioner starting with his legs. Gosh he hoped the others liked his costume, it was a bit simplistic but at least it was stylish and practical.

After he finally finished his shower Ranboo shook himself off, trying to let himself air dry a bit before he blow-dried himself, all towels did was ruffle his fur so he didn't use them. Ranboo stepped out the bathroom after he felt sufficiently dry and grabbed the hair dryer, putting the defuser on to dry his hair first and then taking it off to focus on his body. He finished with 20 minutes to spare and quickly got dressed into a shirt and red tie (leaving off the jacket, he wouldn't make that mistake again) taking care not to ruffle his fur to much as the way it flattened would pretty much be how it sat until he showered again.

Should he knock on Erets door before going down? He knew Techno wouldn't be in because he had to sort something out with the costume designers beforehand, so Eret was his only option unless he wanted to go alone. If they were already gone it would be awkward to just stand outside but if he was there she might still be getting changed or something which would be even more awkward.

He summoned up his courage grasped the door handle determinedly and twisted it, ducking under the frame and walked over to knock on Erets door, he wouldn't know if he didn't try.

Eret opened the door before he could manage and only just managed to avoid bumping into him. Ranboo stood there with his arm outstretched, feeling put out. "Do you want to walk down with me, my lady?" He managed to save, lowering his arm and holding it out in a old-fashioned manner.

Eret laughed and nodded, "of course, my lord, let me just lock up first."

"Oh, same." Ranboo went to lock his door and joined up with Eret in the middle, linking arms and moving to the stairs together.

"So what does your costume look like?" He asked, shades flickering in the fluorescent light as the descended. "I assume you went for a monochrome look, or something really smart." He nodded at Ranboo's two-toned fur and smart shirt. She was wearing just a black t-shirt and jeans again and Ranboo felt a flicker of embarrassment that he was so dressed up, but pushed past it.

"Got in one actually." Ranboo replied sheepishly. "It's pretty simple, but hopefully it'll stand out because of it. What about yours?"

"Oh you'll see." They said knowingly, twitching an eyebrow over his glasses in a rudimentary wink. "Puffy said she's planning on going all out with her's so that'll be fun to see."

"If she's going by hair colour like I am, I can believe it." They both briefly paused the conversation to imagine what a technicolour nightmare that would be.

"Who's your favourite hero?" Ranboo asked, a fairly safe question to ask someone in the hero course.

"Oh, um, you probably won't know him. He's pretty obscure, it's a Japanese hero by the name of Controller." Eret pronounced the English word with a Japanese accent, and rubbed the back of his neck with her hand. "Or Hitoshi Shinsou, well, you know how Japan doesn't have a well established grouping system in for heros? It's pretty much just Rescue, Underground and Brawlers, though they don't call them Brawlers over there as that's basically what heroes are to them, it's actually really interesting in relation to All Mights rise in popularity but I'm not talking about that." She looked slightly embarrassed, but Ranboo couldn't figure out why, it was obviously something they were passionate about. "Controller would be a pretty perfect Negotiator hero over here actually but it was extremely hard for him to become a hero at all in Japan because he had a mental quirk, like me. He's just, you know, really inspiring. What about you?"

"Oh, um, just you know, Captain Rangle I guess, I kinda just think he's cool, I like what he stands for, you know speaking out and everything." 

Captain Rangle was an 'uncomfortably mutated' hero with a quirk that could control people bodies like a puppet. While the media preached acceptance and love towards him, there was a marked increase of blame for on-site damage towards him, with his colleagues telling the media he had done it, and them reporting on it without even checking. Captain Rangle had gone to a small independent media company with a good diversity program and told the whole world about fake "allies" that don't actually examine their internal prejudice. Ranboo knew he was projecting slightly, he certainly didn't have such a severe divation from the 'norm' but he had a feeling, even if he couldn't remember it, he felt that he'd been harassed about it in the past. As sometimes thoughts slipted through without him knowing where they came from.

"Yeah, he's cool." Eret affirmed as they finally reached the end of the staircase and set out across campus. "We're going to the gym area, right?"

"Yep!"

"We should probably follow the sign then." He pointed to the aforementioned sign.

"Right! Let's follow the sign!" Ranboo chirped back.

They followed the sign.

It led to the changing rooms, the four main doors intimidating in their stature, built to be as accomodating as possible, the smaller single rooms less so. Eret stopped, looking between the Both door, and the Male door, then shrugged and walked over to the Male door. "More people in it." She explained at Ranboo's questioning look. "I want to see everybodies costume."

"That's wise." Came a voice from behind Ranboo, causing him to jump like two feet in the air. He turned to see Dream, casually leaning against a wall, practically radiating menace, even in the simple position he was in. His masked face seemed to smirk at Ranboo's look of fear. "I'll be choosing a... single room though."

True to his word he opened one of the smaller changing room doors and entered, effectively ending the conversation.

"That guy gives me the creeps." Commented Eret, staring intently at the spot Dream had vacated, like they wanted to somehow remove any left over fear from their mind.

"I know right!" Agreed Ranboo enthusiastically, glad at least someone felt the same unease he felt near dream Dream.

Eret stared at the single door for a couple second more before suddenly clapping and grinning. "Anyway! Let's see who's in here!"

"Alright!" Ranboo tried to grin back, still slightly unsettled by Dream. He hadn't even noticed he was behind him!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I've finally mentioned every type of hero I'll list them out:  
> Capture  
> Brawler  
> Information gathering  
> Rescue  
> Protector  
> Negotiator  
> Support  
> Underground  
> Try and guess which characters are in which type!
> 
> Please ask questions if you're confused! Unless it's something you're supposed to be confused about I will definitely answer ur question and change it to be less confusing.
> 
> Also! I would love to hear theories about quirks and plot points in the comments! And pls kudos this, it give me fuel to continue! :D


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Ah! Amigos, Amigos!" Cried Quackity over the rapid fire pickup lines, "We're waiting for the costumes to be delivered!" Today he was mimicing Dream, with his usual smily face mask changed to be the Mexican flag.
> 
> He had none of the ingrained menace of Dream while looking like him, perhaps it was in the way he held himself, which was very loosely. Or maybe it was just the fact he had his underwear layered over Dreams jeans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason I had a lot of trouble with this chapter?? I'm still not happy with it even after a day reworking it, and it's not my best work, I just tried to get it out though, it's done its job in progressing the plot. Sorry for the decrease in quality, I might come back and edit it later if I can figure out how to fix it.

Ranboo's entrance into the changing room was much like his entrance into the classroom the day before, loud and very startling, though there weren't as many people. He couldn't help but think it was always going to be like this, everyone was so much more energetic that him (apart from the few who had ended up his floormates, thank god.)

Actually... He checked over the heads, apart from Antfrost and Skeppy, all the loudest people from yesterday were in early. The fire 4, now fire 3 sans George (he guessed because he was on a different floor now) and the arguing pair were there, who today were the flirting pair,as they seemed to be violently flirting with eachother, probably as a joke (he didn't think anyone could use such horrible pick up lines if they weren't.)

"Ah! Amigos, Amigos!" Cried Quackity over the rapid fire pickup lines, "We're waiting for the costumes to be delivered!" Today he was mimicing Dream, with his usual smily face mask changed to be the Mexican flag. 

He had none of the ingrained menace of Dream while looking like him, perhaps it was in the way he held himself, which was very loosely. Or maybe it was just the fact he had his underwear layered over Dreams jeans.

"Ah. Thank you Quackity." Said Eret politely, walking over to one of the benches. Ranboo followed him, not sure what else to do.

"Quackity! Who is Quackity! I am Mexican Dream!"

"Oh ok, sorry then, thank you Mexican Dream.

"Too right you should be!" Quackity laughed, then said something quickly under his breath in Spanish.

J-Schlatt abruptly spun around, interrupting he and Wilburs conversation, (if you wanted to call it that) and shouted at Quackity in Spanish. Delighted, Quackity shouted back, shifting into his default (and nearly naked) form. Soon they were having a rapid conversation. Wilbur looked between them, lost in the background. Ranboo could relate, he had no idea how everyone could just speak to people.

The door opened with a bang, interrupting the two, an impressive feat given how large it was, interrupting the two and causing everyone to go silent. Ranboo froze.

It was Halo walked in, tentacles out and who made a beeline for Wilbur, quickly speaking to him under his breath, looking stressed. Wilbur nodded solemnly, clasped him on the arm and walked out the room closing the door behind him. Ranboo shot a questioning look to Halo's left ear but he just shook his head and crossed to the other side of the room to join Skeppy.

George slipped into the room after Wilbur's exit, everyone switching their attention to him and he turned the grey colour of the door when he noticed everyone's eyes on him, it's effectiveness curbed by the fact you could still see his t-shirt. He joined up with Sapnap.

Slowly but surely talk started back up, aided by the fact that J-Schlatt immediately jumping back into the talk with Quackity with Quackity hesitantly joining in and Sapnap lighting a pencil on fire at George's request. Eret breathed a sigh of relief beside Ranboo.

The only people missing were Fundy and Techno, and Ranboo knew where Techno was. Where was Fundy?

As if summoned by his question Fundy slipped through the door with Wilbur straight behind him, less people looking up like they had at George. Ranboo watched out of the corner of his eye while pretending to struggle with his tie, Fundys ears were down and his shoulders were slumped and when Ranboo risked a quick glance at his eyes, they were red-ringed.

Ranboo didn't know what to do with this information so he tried to ignore it. It's none of his business, he could ask later if he really wanted to know. He turned to Eret instead and asked. "Can you give me a hint on your costume?" And, because Eret was the only person he could try this on, attempted puppy dog eyes, looking at her imploringly.

"No! You'll see!" They laughed and reached up to ruffle his hair. Ranboo squawked and ducked, only succeeding in giving him easier access. He worked so hard on that! "Anyway, here they come." Eret nodded at the door, which was opening and where a man with antlers was pushing a cart through.

The Man, noticing the attention, held up a sign that said 'Year 1 hero costumes'

"Sweet!" Karl shouted, and rushed over picking up one of the boxes. "J-Schlatt, this is yours."

"Nice. Nice." He murmured, taking it and opening it. He peeked in and gave a low whistle. "Nice. Nice." He repeated

This was a cue for everyone to swarm the cart and Ranboo was no exception. "Thank you. Dream is in one of the single rooms by the way." He said to the antlered man and got a nod, smile and thumbs up in response.

After gabbing the box which had 'Randy Tanner - Ranboo' printed on it he returned to the bench with Eret and opened it.

He squealed out loud. It looked perfect! He unbuttoned his shirt quickly, replacing it with the top half of his costume.

The costume was monochrome of course, with the only colour being the red of the neck guard and the line between the two shades. The top was sleeveless, and the left side was black and right was white, to contrast against his fur which was opposite, and was made of a tough, if flexible material. The arm holes had buckles on them to hold up the long sleeved gloves he was going to wear, which would be support for his claws and left a little fur showing at the top of the arm and shoulder, for contrast purposes.

Ranboo admired the the top on him and rapped a knuckle against the material, pleased when he barely felt it. He then moved onto the bottoms, leaving the neck guard, gloves for later.

The bottoms were made of reinforced fabric, same as the top but with slightly more give around the knee and hips area and unlike the top or gloves the shades did go with his fur pattern. He clipped the two pieces into place so the top wouldn't ride up and the pants wouldn't slide down. Then he slide on the gloves and buckled them into place and clipped on the neck guard.

Ranboo twisted his body into various stretches, testing out the flexibility of it and caught sight of Eret.

"Holy cow." Slipped out Ranboo's mouth, unwittingly.

"I know, right!" Eret said enthusiastically, spreading his arms out in a 'here I am' gesture. "When I said I want to be an Information Gatherer this probably wasn't what you thought, right!"

"No, it really wasn't" 

Eret was wearing what could only be described as some sort of club outfit. Her t-shirt was a kind of fine mesh and she was wearing a fashionable looking bright red trenchcoat, to top it all off they were wearing what looked like a plastic crown on his head and had incredibly thick soles on his shoes. If he put on a little makeup they'd look like someone Ranboo would see going on a night out. 

"Isn't that like, really thin though?" He asked pointing at the mesh shirt. "And won't the crown fall off?"

"It's actually a form of modern chainmail! The crown is a communication device, and check this out!" Eret did... Something with the trenchcoat and flipped it around.

"Wow is that a cape?" Ranboo grabbed the end of it to feel the material.

"Yep! It can also function as a blanket for civilians in high stress situations." Eret seemed happy with the attention and Ranboo was happy to give it him, that was so cool!

"That is so cool!" He stated honestly, looking Eret in the shades and grinned, Eret grinned back, full force.

"Thanks dude! Yours is hella cool too! I love the gloves!" Her eyes focused on someone behind him. "God Fundy, can't believe you didn't just wear a fursuit."

"I am not a furry!" Fundy argued and Ranboo spun around to check out his costume.

Fundy was nearly into his costume, a one piece and was just zipping up his top, fabric quickly consuming his chest and the two surgery scars under his pecs. His costume was a nice amber colour with white accents and was a pretty much stereotypical hero costumes, albeit with with a fox theme and cool looking boots and gloves modelled to look like fox paws. Due to the nature of his quirk he didn't have to make it blend in with civilian outfits like Eret did.

Thankfully he didn't look as upset as he was before and Ranboo made a note to ask if he was alright later.

He tuned out the ongoing teasing match to focus on the other costumes in the room. 

Anthony was slowly and methodically getting dressed on his own, strapping bundles and bundles of little glass bottles to his utility belt and arm braces. His actual costume was a beige brown one piece, low key so he wouldn't attract unwanted villain attention.

Skeppy, who was gesticulating wildly to Halo, was already dressed, in a kind of legless and armless leotard in a bright blue colour with elbow and knee guards to protect his joints.

Halo was Skeppys polar opposite, wearing a cool all black and red outfit with a hood and harnesses, he waved when he saw Ranboo was looking.

Wilbur, across the room from him was wearing a yellow two piece outfit with blue accents forming a music note in the middle of his chest he also had some kind of... Stringed instrument? Lyre? Strapped to his arm.

Across from him J-Schlatt was laughing wildly again, teasing him over the chose in instrument. J-Schlatt himself was wearing a pretty swanky costume, cut like a early 21st century suit except Ranboo could see it was made of a much lighter material from how it moved and had many more pockets.

George's suit looked very simple but also incredibly complicated at the same time. It was a light grey body suit but as Ranboo watched it appeared to turn see- through on certain spots of his body, allowing his bioluminescent skin to peak through and he was ignoring the rest of the little group to fiddle with the dial that controlled it. He looked slightly disappointed but Ranboo had no idea how the costume department could have done anything else.

Karl on the other hand was as bright as anything, with a one piece suit that was orange, turquoise and about three shades of purple all tied together with a spiral design on his chest, he looked very excited, trailing his fingers around the swirling pattern in awe.

Sapnap had a monochrome two piece like Ranboo but was a little more orthodox about it with a white top and black bottom and like Anthony he had a utility belt except it was little wooden balls and scraps of (what Ranboo assumed to be) flammable material hung onto it, he also had a stylised flame design on his chest.

Quackitys had a surprisingly simple costume, just a blue tracksuit that from far away looks branded but as Ranboo looked closer it wasn't. Quackity noticed him looking and grinned, shifting taller until he's a mirror image copy of him, literal mirror image that was, the shades of his fur were the opposite to Ranboo's.

Ranboo couldn't pinpoint what was off about that transformation until he got it all at once, the tracksuit shifted with him! God that was so interesting! Ranboo would have to ask how that worked, same with George's. Oh! Also Erets crown was so cool, maybe he could do something similar, and Anthony's utility belt, maybe he could have binoculars or one of those things that let you see over walls, periscopes! He was getting so many cool ideas! He picked up the box the clothes came in and placed it down again, a little further down the bench, a happiness stim of his. This was all so cool!!

The door opened yet again, and Ranboo instinctually turned his gaze to the movement. A familiar pig man walked through.

"Oh my god." Came Erets voice from beside him.

Ranboo couldn't agree more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason I had a lot of trouble with this chapter?? I'm still not happy with it even after a day reworking it, and it's not my best work, I just tried to get it out though, it's done its job in progressing the plot. Sorry for the decrease in quality, I might come back and edit it later if I can figure out how to fix it.
> 
> Please ask questions if you're confused! Unless it's something you're supposed to be confused about I will definitely answer ur question and change it to be less confusing.
> 
> Also! I would love to hear theories about quirks and plot points in the comments! And pls kudos this, it give me fuel to continue! :D


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long to come out! Every class I'm in had a test all in the same week, I had to revise! :D

Techno's costume was decked out. Every single weapon Ranboo had seen yesterday was somewhere on his costume, even the fishing rod, and the costume itself? Well Ranboo was wrong before when he'd thought it'd be simplistic, it was like Erets in the sense it was glamorous but unlike Erets it looked heavy and real, not designed to blend in with a crowd of partiers.

It was a monarchs outfit. Layers and layers of expensive looking red and white fabric vying for his eyes attention with thin gold chains, like those on his piercings, crisscrossed his outfit over (what looked like) velvet and silk and twinkled in the light, he was even wearing a cravat as well, and the buttons on his shirt were mother of pearl. He looked like some sort of wrathful battle king, what with all his weapons and the aesthetic, ready to defend his kingdom. Ranboo was genuinely lost for breath, feeling kind of pathetic in his monochrome costume.

Ranboo pushed the feeling down, it was Technos big moment after all, and did a sort of fast trot to run over to Techno. As he looked down at him he noticed another additional accessory, a golden crown, was he the only one without? First Eret now Techno A bolt of uncertainty seared through him, again he pushed it down "I love your costume! What's it made out of, it looks so real!"

"Oh nothin' much." Responded Techno with false modesty, but he was grinning, his tusks jutting out full force, scars stretched across his face. "They just made it out of some totally new, never used before experimental fabric."

"Yo, what the honk! That's so cool dude!" Came Karl's enthusiastic voice from right beside Ranboo, who jumped at the sound, jeez, how stealthy was he. He thumped Techno on the back with his turquoise hand, pinky finger kept carefully out, and gave him a thumbs up with the purple one.

"You were allowed to attach your weapons from the get go?" Questioned Halo, who crouched to run a finger down the blade of an axe, the skin split and black blood welled up as he swiped. He didn't seem to notice.

"Ya thinkin' of usin' your sword? Weren't ya gonna become a protector hero? Said you weren't gonna fight again?" 

"Yes, but it's a good deterrent." Answered Halo.

Ranboo didn't know they knew each other! That was a cool fact, even a bit unexpected. What was that about Halo fighting though? He didn't seem the type, he was a sweet guy. Ranboo felt slightly guilty, he'd automatically assumed Techno had fought before because of his scars but completely discounted Halo because of his, well, prudish nature, even despite his incredibly powerful quirk.

Techno merely grunted in answer, sounding slightly disbelieving. But what seemed like the rest of the room began to crowd him to question him and Techno was soon almost preening with the attention.

Fundy, however, was still in his corner, one of the only ones not to instantly fawn over Techno other than J-Schlatt, who was across from him doing muscle stretches. He was checking the straps on his boots as Ranboo sidled over to him.

"Are you, you know, alright?" Began Ranboo, hand scratching his neck. God he hated talking to people without prompt but he wanted to make sure Fundy didn't have any new trauma or anything. It was bad enough that he and Techno had some, they didn't need anyone else with a tragic backstory.

"Hm?" Intoned Fundy, looking up from his boot. "Oh! That! Don't worry about it."

"What happened?" Prodded Ranboo, ready to drop the subject if he didn't want to talk about it.

"Just an attack on my home town. The Enders, you know, I was worried my mum was hurt. She wasn't! It was just a bit of a shock you know?" Fundy finished with clasp and straighted, head coming up to Ranboo's chest. He raised a hand and patted him on the shoulder. "Imma go and check out at Techno's costume now, it looks so cool." He strode off, oblivious to Ranboo's confusion.

"Wait!" Ranboo half heartedly called after him, feeling winded, and tilted his head. "The Enders?" 

Fundy didn't hear him, already to engrossed in studying the fabric of Technos outfit, but the impact of his words were like a blow.

Enders. Enders. Enders. Enders? The word rattled around his head. That was important. Important. Important.

What was important? 

Nothing.

Something. He needed to remember something.

Remember? Remember what?

Enders. He needed to remember Enders.

What were Enders?

Something important.

Why?

Ranboo slid to the floor, knees buckling, the abruptness of the mental 180 startling.

Enders. The name Enders was important.

Why? 

How had he thought of it? Where had the thought of Enders come from?

He couldn't remember. He had to remember. 

He didn't know what prompted the memory but he had it now. 

Fundy prompted the memory... Fundy was nice, Fundy was a fox, Fundy was orange.

Fundys mum was attacked. By Enders.

Enders. In his head. He needed to keep that. 

Purple. The colour purple. Fundy was orange, Enders purple.

Purple Eye. 

Eye begins with E, Enders begins with E.

E for Eye and Enders. What? What? What?

He needed to concentrate. Ranboo (who was Ranboo? Why did he call himself Ranboo in his head. He was Randy Tanner. Wasn't he?) Squeezed his eyes shut. (Eyes. Eyes that weren't purple. Should have been.) And clasped his hands over his ears and started to rock back and forth.

He needed to keep this. It was important. He knew it.

"Are you alright?" He heard someone ask as they came closer to him. Maybe he could ask them for a book to write in? He needed to remember this. Remember? Remember what? Enders.

"Don't touch him!" Came a sharp voice further back. Too late, Ranboo felt a hand grasp his shoulder.

His concentration broke.

"I'm sorry what did you say? I didn't quite catch it." Ranboo removed his hands from his ears - when did they get there - and asked, looking up to Quackity.

"I asked if you were alright?" His tone was concerned and his expression even more so. Ranboo's eyes drifted to focused on his beanie, it was blue with a white stripe.

"Yep! Why'd you ask?" 

"Are you sure? You were all curled up and it sounded like you were speaking a completely different language for a second there."

"Oh?" Ranboo queried, bemused. "What was I saying?"

"Uh..." Quackity hesitated . "Wait I wanna get this right. 'Plurpl queyé Endrarnan' I think it was."

"God, your accent is horrible." Slipped out before Ranboo could stop himself. Seeing Quackitys hurt look he back peddled. "That was a joke! It was just nonsense, don't worry!"

"Oh." He said relieved. "Well if you're sure you're ok!"

"I am totally sure!" Ranboo said truthfully, if he was a bit confused, Quackity didn't need to know. Why was he saying 'purple eye Ender'? That was such an odd combination of words. He was glad he used his made up language, it would've been awkward to explain if it were in English

Guess he wouldn't know.

As Quackity backed away Eret moved forward to replace him, like a train of well wishers.

"Are you okay?" He asked urgently, brow sloped in concern. "What triggered the panic attack?"

Panic attack? What panic attack? Ranboo had genuinely had no idea what he was on about. 

Oh! That's why he was on the floor.

"Can't remember." Ranboo answered cheerfully, and took care to sneakily look over Erets shoulder to check who knew about his current condition. Only Quackity was looking concernedly back at him, everyone else hadn't seemed to have noticed his position on the floor.

"Oh damn, your memory problems, right! You sure you don't want to meet up with my mental quirk therapist? he's great at recovering suppressed memories." Eret smiled gently at him and Ranboo scrunched his nose despite himself. God he hated being pitied. He smoothed his face quickly

"People at the hospital already tried that, didn't work, they say it's proof of a naturally generated memory block." Ranboo explained patiently, it wasn't Erets fault she didn't know after all.

"Damn." Eret looked genuinely put out by it and Ranboo's ears lifted slightly. He really cared about him, huh.

It wasn't that his parents didn't worry, it was just 7 kids were a lot and between Andrew's high maintenance quirk and Haru's recent deafening. Ranboo didn't get a lot of attention.

"Yeah. I live with it though." He reassured. "This isn't a new thing. Look, people are starting to leave." He checked over her shoulder again. They were, thank god, it would've been disgustingly awkward if they weren't. "We should probably go present ourselves for Philza Soot's approval"

Eret twisted to look and pulled a face at the prospect. "God, I'm so nervous, this isn't what I usually wear at all."

Ranboo laughed. "And you think I wear this?! It's a costume dude!" He started to stand, grasping the hand Eret quickly held out, shooting up to tower over them again.

"It's different with you!" They complained as the both of the started to move. "Anyone could tell it was a costume, mine was specifically designed not to look like one! My wardrobe is a black top and jeans, yours is a full suit!"

"Was that ok by the way?" Ranboo put in nervously, taking care to slow his strides to match Erets smaller legs. "I felt incredibly out of place."

"Schlatt was wearing one, wasn't he? You were fine, you're super lanky so suits look hella cool on you."

Ranboo almost immediately disproved Erets praise (praise! People liked his style! He was called cool!) by nearly tripping, his lanky legs suddenly uncooperative. Thankfully Eret hadn't seemed noticed anything, and if she had, didn't say anything as she kept talking.

"I guess." Ranboo replied, distractedly looking down. His foot had caught on something.

A red scarf lay on the ground.

"You reckon this is Halo's?" He interrupted, passing it to his hand via the foot scooping method and offering to Eret for inspection.

They lifted up his shades to check the colour. "Looks like. You wanna go over and ask?"

"Should I?" Ranboo really hated talking first, had he mentioned that yet? But unlucky for him Eret seemed set on the idea.

"Totally! Get to know your classmates and all." They knocked him on the shoulder, pushing him forward slightly and grinned with teeth.

"What about you?" Please don't say Eret was making him do it by himself.

"One on one is always better! Have fun!" She insisted an shoved him again. He stumbled slightly and he went to protest again, mouth opening slightly but paused. Eret looked mischievous, but certainly not malicious. Perhaps this was just what friends did. Ranboo just closed his mouth, nodded and moved on, he wouldn't force the issue if that was the case.

It didn't matter, Halo needed his scarf back, dare or not, and he jogged slightly to reach Halo, managing to catch him on the slight incline to the classroom.

"Hey!" Ranboo called, and reached to tap Halo on the shoulder, noticing absentmindedly he actually had to stretch up slightly to do so instead of crouch down. "I think you dropped this!"

His hand was caught before he touched fabric and Halo turned around so fast Ranboo couldn't avert his eyes in time, temporarily freezing the would-be hero in place.

"Oops! Sorry!" Ranboo apologised and skimmed his eyes for something to focus on, landing on the eyebrows, Halo had such good reflexes!

"Oh it's fine!!" Halo assured him cheerfully, letting go of Ranboo's white hand and clasping his together. He tilted his head slightly. "What was that you said?"

Ranboo looked up at him. Halo gave off the vibe of an incredibly friendly grandma and it was quiet disconcerting for one so tall. "Uh, did you drop this?" He held out the red scarf.

Halo's hand flew to his neck, smile slipping slightly and his brows furrowed briefly in worry before clearing. "I did. Thanks for getting for me! I really appreciate it." He smiled again, this time more genuinely and Ranboo felt his worries about social interaction wash away. Even though it was over a small thing, Ranboo could tell he actually meant what he said. He really did appreciate it.

"You know," Ranboo began, emboldened by Halo's general goodness. "I rarely meet anyone taller that me. How the hell do you fit in showers. You must be what? At least 9 foot?"

Halo brightened (literally brightened, his eyes glowed for a second) even more at the attempt at conversation. "8' 11" actually! 9' 6" in my Eldrich form, I have to buy specialty doors and showers."

Ranboo was 8' 7", Halo would be almost a foot taller than him in his 'Eldritch form'. Sweet Jesus, was this what people felt like meeting him? He pushed on regardless. "That's so cool! And I was so sure I'd be the tallest here!"

Halo laughed, the most stereotypical cutest 'hehe' hiccuppy laugh you could get and Ranboo found himself smiling. He was so nice! Honestly Halo would make a great future hero.

"Ranboo, do ya mind comin' over here for a second?" 

Technos voice cut between the two of them, silencing Halo who's jaw closed with an audible click.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please ask questions if you're confused! Unless it's something you're supposed to be confused about I will definitely answer ur question and change it to be less confusing.
> 
> Also! I would love to hear theories about quirks and plot points in the comments! And pls kudos this, it give me fuel to continue! :D

**Author's Note:**

> If any of the cc's express discomfort over this, I will delete it. 
> 
> Thanks for reading! :D


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